It is 24 September 2007. India are up against Pakistan in the finals of the T20 World Cup. Pakistan are just six runs away from winning the tournament. They have four balls and a solitary wicket in hand to lift the trophy. Joginder Sharma is under immense pressure as he has already given away seven runs of the first two balls. Meanwhile, Pakistan hopes are revolving around the man in strike Misbah-ul-Haq, who has brought them in touching distance of a historic win.

Before the third ball of the over Joginder has already had a chat with his captain MS Dhoni who came up to him from the keeper’s end to have a quick word before the next ball. Joginder takes a deep breath, starts his run-up and delivers a classic slower delivery outside the off stump. Misbah, who knew that fine leg was within the 30 yards circle, goes for the scoop shot in an attempt to go over the fielder and fetch four runs.

Advertisement

However, the lack of pace in that delivery has outwitted Misbah and he mistimes the ball straight into the air instead. S Sreesanth at short fine leg takes the catch as India register a record win. In effect, India had won the inaugural ICC World T20 as they defeated arch-rivals Pakistan by five runs in the finals.

12 years since that day, India are yet to win another T20 World Cup but memories of that day are fresh in the minds of cricket fraternity and fans alike. On Tuesday, BCCI took to its social media handle and posted, “This day in 2007, Team India were crowned World T20 Champions.”

This day, in 2⃣0⃣0⃣7⃣#TeamIndia were crowned World T20 Champions 😎🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/o7gUrTF8XN

— BCCI (@BCCI) September 24, 2019

The win was special not only because it gave India its first World Cup in any format since the 1983 World Cup but also because hardly anyone had given India a chance to win the trophy since it was a relatively young and inexperienced side which had gone to compete in the tournament.

Gautam Gambhir and Irfan Pathan were the heroes of the match as far as the final is concerned but the tournament totally belonged to Yuvraj Singh who came to his own in the tournament playing many memorable knocks and also hitting six sixes in an over in a crucial game against England.

MS Dhoni thus led India to a win in ICC World T20. He later went to add the ICC Cricket World Cup Trophy, ICC Champions Trophy and ICC Test Mace in his trophy cabinet.